Some stuff on the side...

I'd like to show everyone what I do besides being the Director and Producer for Phoenix, and what I'm capable of delivering with the people I work with. This is a promotional video for the game "Majin Station" by LEVEL 5. The animation is done by the same studio that does the Evangelion films, Khara (they are basically the same people from GAINAX who has taken over production of the series), and I co-ordinated, supervised and directed the music and SFX. The music is done by our very own Tomoki Miyoshi who will also be taking part with Project Phoenix.

Obviously, to do something of this quality would take a huge chunk of our budget away. I'd like to do something more, but it looks like "now" is not the time. We'd like to use our funds wisely and focus on a great content ie. a great fun game.

That been said, now you know where I come from and the quality in which we work.

I also do enjoy a nice lunch sometimes

Only with my co-conspirator of the story team from Project Phoenix. Here's a picture with Yoko Enoki and Bill Benford at some nice restaurant in Tokyo. Although they seem to be enjoying a nice meal, we were hard at work working out the details and perhaps some kind of a story update on video in the future.

Oh rad, I heard of this! It's apparently supposed to be "Level 5's Shin Megami Tensei" - at least, that's how most people describe it - who knows how accurate that is (I remember when Yakuza first came out here in the West; every idiot who'd type a preview would say, "It's Japan's Grand Theft Auto" when it's absolutely nothing like it). Very impressive cutscene - a neat thing to show off! That's real cool :D

I personally got no problem with the occasional update not related to Project Phoenix. Obsidian has been doing some updates for Project Eternity that are just "Let's Play" videos of Classic CRPG's. They tie it in by focusing on design elements that they hope to bring back and iterate on for Eternity, and also they have some guys who can talk about behind-the-scenes stuff during production because they were there, but at that end of the day, they're just playing games. Soul Saga did that too. It's fun. Nice to see the personalities behind these projects sometimes. The talent, the insight, the knowledge & passion - all that stuff, y'know? This was cool.

I saw that trailer yesterday, on an article from a Spanish videogames website. It looked amazing to me, and I couldn't help to notice that Gannondorf has a brother who fights like a Samurai. Absolutely thrilling!! XD

Superbacker

I too have noticed what seems to be a somewhat slow level of donations. I only hope it does a big pick-up before the end otherwise what we get is going to be much less of a game than it should be (certainly if we don't make the $1,025,000 goal). I personally see two reasons, though there are probably more.
One, I do think the kickstarter campaign was launched too early. This is something I have witnessed a number of times on Kickstarter, and with the increase in campaigns I think this is become more and more obvious. Few people (relatively speaking) are prepared to back an idea. Most people want to see something tangible first. For some reason many game developers think they are an exception. Technology projects, for example, will often have a prototype developed which they seek to improve and mass produce. People can see that the idea is doable and has potential. For a game developer this would suggest a small tech demo - not necessarily publically available - but something that would show a small snapshot of what you are seeking to achieve. It is often said that it takes money to make money and this is very often the truth. You need to invest your own time and money to produce a prototype or similar before you can expect others to jump on board - especially if you want larger success instead of small success. Another way of looking at it is that people are more likely to pick up a hitchhiker who is already walking towards their destination than one who is standing around waiting for others to take them there. This is a lesson that game developers, amongst others, need to learn with regards to getting the most support in a Kickstarter campaign.

The other reason that I personally think might be an option, and i won't rehash other posts, is the game design seems confused/unclear at this point. The JRPG side is pushed the most, whereas a handful of comments declare it to be a RTS. A lot more explaining and clarifying needs to be done before people can really understand what this game is going to be and if it will appeal to them. I am sure this will all be cleared up by the end of the campaign, but how many people will have passed it by in the meantime? You need to have a clear vision that is really well explained if you want people to give you there money. No one wants to back something that they are not sure they will enjoy. At the moment this game looks like it might be a mashup of two genres (JRPG and RTS). Even a well established company would require a lot of faith in it for people to be convinced of their ability to pull that off and produce a game that appeals to both sides. A new company, even with experienced people, is really expecting a lot off people for them to believe in their ability to do that.
At this stage I am still prepared to take the risk, but oddly enough the more closely I have looked at the campaign I have gone from looking at making a high pledge to sticking with a low one... I sincerely hope that by the end of the campaign everything will be much clearer and I will be really amped for what is coming, but really everything needed to be clear from the start to attract the most support.

"Obviously, to do something of this quality would take a huge chunk of our budget away. I'd like to do something more, but it looks like "now" is not the time. We'd like to use our funds wisely and focus on a great content ie. a great fun game."

Yes, please focus on content and gameplay, not music. I don't play games for the music, no offense!

@Adrian - yeah you got love those who think they need to have the product first before they give to its creation. I can see their view as I help back on donating until about week or so ago despite watching this kickstart from day 1 (saw its link on PS4 boards of gamefaq)

Was mainly waiting for news on the console release but realized if donating now means the PS4/Vita version also gets enhanced, so took that leap of faith and now got my fingers crossed the game will succeed :)

@XV-Dragon i know... just that i still see people saying "no footage = no pledge" or hesitant. i guess sometimes with KS projects, its also a leap of faith for backers. we need to just place our trust and watch the project grow over time. :D

@Adrian - Think it was said before, the CIA team started the kickstart to be able to make the 3D models, so they could not provide much in terms of gameplay until after they get the money they needed.

With any luck maybe they can get more pledges through paypal once they use what they do make from this and can provide the footage that will get 'slacker backers' to finish off any stretch goals we do not make in the next 2 weeks.

i do fear that we may not make even 1mil at the rate we're going... and it would really be quite disappointing for me. i am actually looking forward to Project Phoenix hitting 1.65mil.

but i guess its hard to convince many others when there's hardly a lot to show (in terms of actual game footage, etc).

it does make me think -- perhaps this project was launched too early? would it have been better when its launched with more materials and platforms at hand (like some game footage and next-gen console availability).

i guess maybe will be just the start of many more to come. i really do hope the team will stick around to make new sequels, etc... perhaps then, we'll be able to get more funding, etc...

ya, i know i sound negative, but its just... looking at how things are progressing, it's hard to imagine this project even touching 1mil. i've spammed G+, Twitter, forums, etc... doing whatever i can... and praying for this project to hit at least 1.65mil too! ;)

on a side note:
* is it allowed to actually get more funding again for this project mid-way? when there's more to show? or KS T&C allows only 1 time funding per project? i guess there's always the on-going PayPal option
* Project Phoenix is a go even as it is -- only minus the stretch goals, right?

@IamHowie They said paypal would still be open after KS [[One good thing to note though, since we now have a PayPal option, we can continue to reach stretch goals even after the Kickstarter ends. Late backers just won't get all the Kickstarter-exclusive rewards ;)]]

That trailer looked REALLY cool! Whatever that game is, I hope it's easily available to western audiences. Trying to buy Japanese content on the iTunes store can be quite difficult, impossible even... :(